Educators’ emphasis on the education system: first remove outdoor toilets and then grow geniuses

Nerija Putinaitė, an associate professor and professor at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, believes that there are two ways to create genius like the American inventor and entrepreneur Elonas Muskas in Raseiniai. One is simple and the other is complex.

Two ways to raise geniuses in Lithuania

“A simple way is to create a school in Raseiniai where the best Lithuanian teachers and the best Lithuanian children would be selected, and allocate most of the funds allocated for Lithuanian education. And that both university professors and specialists from the best companies would work with these children. This is a simple way, ”said Elon Musk of Raseiniai in a discussion on education organized by the Freedom Party. Do we have the ambition to achieve this? N. Putinaitė said Tuesday.

But this path also means that the rest of the educational system would degrade. And after a while, according to N. Putinaitė, there would probably be no more democracy in the country, because the people would be too enlightened.

“And we will have Muscat, but we will be a collapsed state,” added VU associate professor TSPMI.

At that time, the difficult road signifies the state’s efforts in the current educational system to ensure that students with the worst socioeconomic status have equal access to education.

“I need a child whose parents drink from morning to afternoon and who live in the fields to achieve at least the average level of education found in Lithuania. It seems to me that there is a difficult path here. If we can get those children who are now severely separated by all evaluations to reach the average level, then Muskas will appear in Raseiniai, Ignalina or Visaginas, ”said N. Putinaitė.

According to VU Associate Professor TSPMI, there is a lot of talk about promoting student creativity in schools, but these languages ​​fade away when faced with real problems in schools.

“When we go to family members and face real problems, we think there is still room for creativity issues. Maybe we will first remove the toilets outdoors, and then we will think about … I don’t know what,” said N. Putinaitė.

More freedom for schools.

Speaking of systemic changes in the education system, the former ISM rector and founder of Scholar Lyceum Nerijus Pačėsa notes that everyone knows what to change in the education system, but it is very difficult to implement.

“By the way, it is difficult to do it at the school level, it is even more difficult to do it at the system level. I think the system keeps us practically alone with the enthusiastic teachers involved who, having figured out what to do, take it and do it. Every school has at least one of those teachers, because the system solves completely different tasks, “said N. Pačėsa in the discussion.

According to him, education should be fun, inclusive and meaningful, but in today’s education system it is difficult to guarantee it.

“The system solves the challenges of what to teach, how much to teach and how to measure what has been learned. How to teach, the system practically says nothing. The last part is the most faulty. When you determine what you see, how often, in what way, you are basically straightening what you are learning.

The system only measures the amount of knowledge acquired, which does not measure at all how much you are involved, motivated, how creative you looked at the task, how much you understood. This is the main challenge ”, emphasized the Rector of ISM.

According to him, a safer path is to give more responsibility to the schools themselves.

“Because you can find a lot of initiative and correct thinking at the school level. Another question is how to help the school grow. I think the system is working very badly, because we listened to the list of some bad schools before understanding how those schools will be helped to get off that list, “said N. Pačėsa.

Moving from discussion to work

Responding to this last idea, Rūta Krasauskienė, Director of the National Education Agency, always says that she places an equal sign between freedom and responsibility in education.

“School of freedom and school of responsibility. Freedom teacher, what to do in your class and responsibility teacher. To the principal of the school of freedom and the principal of the school of responsibility.

By looking at what is happening today with the updating of the general education curriculum, listening to the various passions boiling in the various working groups, I can say that on the one hand we can be glad that people speak freely, argue.

But I would very much like to go from discussion to real work and decide what we need: just cosmetic work or a breakthrough. That Elonas Muskas would not only be from Raseiniai, that there would be as much musk as possible from those elons, ”said R. Krasauskienė in the discussion.